Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn claims Francis Ngannou’s team failed to respond to a call about a potential fight.

Ngannou’s stock has never been higher after dropping and almost beating Tyson Fury in November. The former UFC champion was denied on the scorecards after an unexpected performance over 10 rounds in Saudi Arabia. He has been linked with a clash with Joshua, who himself is booked to fight Otto Wallin this month, but Hearn said talks failed to get off the ground.

“I reached out to Francis Ngannou ’s team and I said, ‘Just to let you know, we’re up for discussing the Francis Ngannou-AJ fight’. I never heard back from them. So I think probably, knowing the business, I would say that probably Fury-Ngannou is almost probably agreed to post Fury-Usyk already,” Hearn told The MMA Hour.

“[Ngannou will] feel like, after that first fight, he can beat Fury, but there’s no point [in boxing non-stars] — he can really lose to anybody in the top 50 at heavyweight, so you’ve got to cash in at this point, and there’s really only three fights that cash into the levels that he will want [Fury, Joshua, or Deontay Wilder ].

“So I’d guess, and you might know better, Francis Ngannou will fight in the PFL or wherever in spring, summer of 2024, and then he’ll fight Tyson Fury at the end of [2024]. I would think that would be the mindset of the team.”

Ngannou, however, still appears keen to fight Joshua. “Anything that he wants. Ring or octagon. The good thing is I’m the one that can go everywhere comfortably,” he said on the Club Shay Shay podcast. “My comfort zone will be the octagon, but I’m going to the ring and putting them in a bad spot in the ring.

“I have my territory [in MMA] where they cannot mess with me. If they come, they will need something like some favour, like, ‘I’ll give you this, we’ll take kicks out.’ “I have to give him something, but when we step in the ring, they don’t give me anything and I still get them in trouble.”